1. RUSSIA AND REVOLUTION

2. SERFDOM
In % of Russians depended on agriculture to make a living
80% of these people were serfs
System was morally wrong and economically backward

3. Czar Alexander I An autocrat Contemplated freeing the serfs
Died in 1825…peaceful reform died with him

4. THE DECEMBRIST REVOLT
“Constantine and the Constitution”

5. NICHOLAS I 1825-1855 Resisted change Crushed uprisings
Limited education
Created secret police
Fought Crimean War

6. ALEXANDER II 1855-1881 Accepted need for reform
March 3, 1861: freed the serfs
Gave citizens more rights
Expanded education
Set up zemstvos

7. FREEING THE SERFS Half of land kept by nobles
Half parceled out to serfs
Land became community property
Each peasant community called a mir
Mir owned land, worked land and paid taxes
Peasants were tied to the mir
Debt to nobles would not be paid off for 60 years

8. UNREST
Peasant riots
Censorship
Secret societies
Nihilism
narodniki

9. ALEXANDER III

10. Alexander III and his family

11. NICHOLAS II

12. Czar Nicholas II
wrong man…wrong place…wrong time

13. Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna…”Sunny”…grandaughter of Queen Victoria…and carrier of hemophilia

14. Nicholas and Alexandra

18. Hemophilia Genetic disorder Passed from the mother to her son
Blood lacks the clotting factor
Painful bleeding into joints
Life-threatening

19. rasputin
A “starets”
Won Alexandra’s support since he could “heal” Alexei
Helped destroy the Romanov dynasty

21. How most Russians viewed Rasputin

22. March, 1917

23. Ipatiev House, Ekaterinberg July 1918